Gone
by Sunsoarer
Summary: No matter the name, it was a fiery redhead, a former assassin, and powerful Jedi. Mara Jade Skywalker. Any related to her were at odds because her huge Force presence was out. Utterly extinguished. Gone- just as she was.


**Disclaimer:** This is a random songfic- essentially I'll be writing around song lyrics (well, getting inspiration from them) and putting them in as I go. I own nothing, absolutely nada. Besides the plot, I guess.

**Note:** It's going to be depressing and verryyy angsty… and possibly really slow in coming. This is NOT my usual writing style: usually I'm all about romance and happy endings. Romance though this might be, it's not going to be happy romance. I'll just let you know that right now. It might, however, have a happy ending. It depends.

**Gone- Chapter 1: Obsessed**

Luke sat on his bed on the (somewhat borrowed) Jade's Sabre, remembering. Leia was at odds with Han; Jaina and Jacen were fighting over every little thing; Anakin was huddled in a corner, almost invisible with the Force hiding his presence.

To Luke, it was his wife.

To Leia and Han, it was a sister.

To the children, it was Aunt Mara.

No matter the name, it was a fiery redhead, a former assassin, and powerful Jedi. Mara Jade Skywalker. Any related to her were at odds because her huge Force presence was out. Utterly extinguished. Gone, just as she was.

Missing in action- and, though she didn't know it yet, carrying an extra burden.

---

Luke suddenly snapped out of his tearful reverie and stood, power massing about him. His mind touched something which he unconsciously tried to snap away from but somehow or another, his Force presence wrapped one tendril around that darkness and it told him something amazing.

Kamino.

That was all it said.

Jedi Master Luke Skywalker knew what it meant. He ran to the navcomputer and halted his trip through hyperspace. Artoo was powered down and the cockpit was utterly silent except for Luke's labored breathing. With a few jabs of his finger and a harsh use of the tainted Force around him he altered his hyperspace route to Kamino and slammed the energy to full power. He had to get there as fast as possible.

Going back to the cabin where he and Mara had spent so many hyperspace trips, sleeping, talking, and enjoying in certain activities, he laid prone on the bed and succumbed to the Jedi hibernation trance he triggered in his mind.

The darkness engulfed him in more ways than one.

---

"HAN!" Leia stomped through their apartment. "I swear on Naboo, what are you DOING?"

"Trying to cook!" He bumped the pot and burned his skin on the raging metal, and in his haste to put it under cold water he knocked the pot off the stove and onto the floor. Leia screeched again, turned off the stove, pointed to her husband, pointed to the mess, threw her hands up into the air and disappeared. The door to their bedroom slammed and locked a moment later.

Anakin was still curled in his corner; Jaina and Jacen came running in, yelling. 3P0 was having a flat-out panic attack, and finally Winter came in the front door.

"One of the Noghri found me and told me to come home; what's the iss-"

She was met by a furious Han making his way down to a spare bedroom, where he grabbed a carryall and stormed out the front door, yelling, "The kids are yours, Winter."

Lady Winter Celchu gaped after Han and then turned to the screaming twins, making herself recover her calm. "Come on, you two. Let's go find something to do. Anakin?"

He looked up, face ashen. Winter beckoned, and he got up and came, stumbling as his legs cramped. The four left to a quiet restaurant to get away from the atmosphere, but even through dinner the twins bickered and Anakin nearly refused to eat, his blue eyes washed out.

Leia felt them leave with Winter and returned to sobbing into a pillow; her comlink beeped as someone tried to contact her. She ignored it for ten minutes before grabbing it, furious with the noise.

"What?!"

"Whoa there, Leia. I thought I'd tell you Han just blasted out of here looking half dead."

Karrde. "I figured he did. Don't worry about it."

"What is it with you people lately anyways? Ever since Ma-"

"DON'T TALK ABOUT HER!" Leia kept herself from screaming, barely. "Just… don't mention her…"

The comlink fell from her suddenly stiff hand.

---

Talon Karrde sat back at his desk. So that was the issue. He expected Luke to be furious and hysterical, but not necessarily the Solos as well. It did make sense, though, to some extent. Luke had tried to explain once that Mara's Force sense was very bright and that if it was ever dampened things felt… off. When Mara had been reported missing, it was Luke who was dragged off to the Manarai Medical Center's insane asylum, as he was screaming, SHE'S GONE! HER PRESENCE IS GONE! GONE! IT'S GONE! and other half-formed phrases that were obviously unfinished thoughts. He had emerged two days later (the holoreporters thought that he had been injured fixing his X-Wing) appearing only as a shell. He was utterly silent, eyes red-rimmed. He never spoke. A lightsaber- his- hung always at his belt, but another one was always in his hand. Mara's. She had left it behind, as something was wrong with the wiring, and borrowed another.

That afternoon he had departed without a word.

---

Hyperspace lights bleeped. Luke sat up, roused from his trance a mere minute earlier, and stood. Brushing out the creases in his clothes he clipped two lightsabers to his belt and went to guide the Jade's Sabre in to the Kaminoan spaceport.

Aliens met him there.

"Jedi? Here?" One appeared to be a translator.

Luke merely nodded.

"What do you want?"

_Mara._ His voice projected itself clearly in their minds.

"Mara? What is this Mara?" The alien's voice was harboring a mistruth.

_You bastard. I know she is here, and I know she is hurting. Where is she?_ He pushed a Force image of her in front of their mental eyes. _Lead me to her. Now._

"Ah. The red one."

_I don't care what you call her, scum! Lead me to her now!_

"The red one has given us much trouble."

_Now._

Another one of the aliens spoke in their language. The translator spoke again. "He says that this Mara knocked him unconscious. He wishes to tell you that he hit her for that offense."

The Kaminoan found himself dragged up in the air by his neck in a Force choke, unable to breathe, and fell to the ground nearly suffocated.

_If you hurry, he will live. One does not threaten Mara Jade without repercussions._

"Mara Jade? She seems familiar."

_See this. She's not just Mara Jade. She is Mara Jade Skywalker._

"Really?"

_Really. Can you guess who I am?_

"No."

_Surely you know who her husband is? I am he._

"Well then." The alien grinned maliciously. "Please, come with me."

---

Luke found himself in an antechamber, waiting. Force figures appeared before his eyes, pleading, but the new Lord's Force sense was clouded.

Lord? What? Luke let that thought away from his mind. Ben Kenobi appeared before his eyes, faint and semitransparent.

"Luke… do not succumb…"

The Jedi Master paid him no heed.

The figure of Obi-Wan sighed and glanced to the right. "Master?"

Another Force figure appeared: Yoda. He shook his walking stick at Luke. "Foolish apprentice! Listen! You must not succumb!"

Again. Luke paid him no mind.

---

The two Force figures were not silent in their pleas. Many other figures were pleading with Luke, but his tainted Force sense kept them at bay. There was one other who might be able to connect to him- he was certainly strong enough- but no. He refused.

In the Force world, Yoda made his way to where a figure sat, apparently meditating, but his shoulders were a little hunched for that.

"Anakin?" Yoda's scratchy voice seemed to ring. "Distressed, you are."

"Yes, Master. I am." Anakin Skywalker let himself relax and collapse, his head falling into his palms. "I feel that it is my fault."

"Your fault, what is?"

"Luke." Anakin looked down at his son and began to reach for him before pulling back. "He is tainted by darkness."

"It to him, Mara's disappearance did. Loves her very much, he does."

Anakin sighed and his shoulders shook twice- three times- in dry sobs. "Padme…"

"You and Amidala, very like." Yoda let Anakin's self-depreciation deepen, sensing that he was coming close to Yoda's desired goal. "Touches the Dark Side, young Luke does, hmm? Accepts it?"

"He does. Nothing is sensible. All he wants is Mara."

"Devoted, he is." Yoda tapped his walking stick on the ground as he rose to stand with Anakin, watching Luke. "Hmm?"

"Obsessed."


End file.
